Hayabusaa Japanese spacecraft that was launched on May 9, 2003, from the Kagoshima Space Center, landed on the asteroid Itokawa in November 2005, and is scheduled to return to Earth with a landing near Woomera, Austl., in on June 13, 2010. Hayabusa (“Falcon”) has experienced several technical problems but has returned much valuable scientific data on Itokawa.

Since injection into an interplanetary transfer orbit, the spacecraft has been propelled by four small ion engines. However, a large solar flare in November 2003 reduced the electrical output of the solar arrays and thus the thrust that the engines could provide to Hayabusa. This delayed the planned rendezvous from June 2005 to Sept. 12, 2005, when Hayabusa achieved a station-keeping position that effectively was nearly stationary relative to the asteroid. The spacecraft had also suffered thruster leaks and battery and equipment failures that made operations exceptionally challenging.

Instruments include the Asteroid Multi-band Imaging Camera (AMICA), infrared and X-ray spectrometers, and a light detection and ranging (lidar) system. AMICA took images during the inbound approach to identify the asteroid’s rotational axis and then mapped Itokawa as it rotated under the spacecraft. The spectrometers assayed the chemical and physical properties of the surface. The lidar system that was used mapped the asteroid’s topography. Hayabusa also carried a small robot called MINERVA (MIcro/Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid) that was designed to move across Itokawa’s surface by hopping from place to place.

On Nov. 4, 2005, a landing rehearsal was started but then aborted by a bad data signal. In a second rehearsal on November 12, Hayabusa came within 55 metres (180 feet) of Itokawa’s surface, but after Hayabusa ascended from near Itokawa, MINERVA was accidentally released and cast into space. Hayabusa made two landings and ascents from the asteroid surface on November 19 and 25. Neither went as planned, and scientists expect that only a gram or so of asteroid dust was collected by the spacecraft as it fired a tantalum pellet into the surface to stir up dust for capture. When Hayabusa returns to Earth in 2010, it is designed to eject a capsule covered with a heat shield to protect the asteroid dust within from the heat of reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The dust will be returned to Japan for analysis.